Help! Son has horrible rash - skin sloughing off...

[ILovePie]

We had a stink problem. I stripped with Dawn. I used OxyClean, Calgon, and RLR. The stink is finally gone (except nighttime diapers, which smell of ammonia - but I figured that was because he was in them for so long and peed so much in them?).

I also switched to RockinGreen detergent because it's supposed to be good for hard water, and I've been doing a monthly hot wash of the washer with no diapers or clothes in it.

However, my son keeps getting a diaper rash. He has it constantly unless we keep a barrier ointment on him (I'm using the one from Northern Essence). It's a bright red, clearly painful rash - and today the skin on his penis is sloughing off after maybe 2 diapers without a barrier.

I don't know what to do about this. How can I even tell if I didn't do the stripping properly/completely or if my wash routine/detergent needs to be changed?

[Kailey's mom]

Yeast?

[mntnmom]

I second the yeast. We just had an awful time with a yeast rash. I started doing a vinegar rinse, and eventually broke down and started using monistat on his butt.

[alfabetsoup]

It could be yeast or a secondary bacterial infection. I would get it checked out by your dr--we had a horrible rash that wouldn't go away and it turned out to be bacterial.

[Sharon, RN]

I'm so sorry about your ds! ouch ouch ouch!!!!

I've just returned to cloth diapering, so I'm not nearly as educated about this stuff as many of the fine ladies on this board, but I want to second having the rash checked out by the Dr.

There are some detergents/additives that will attack skin, I believe because of ingredients (enzymes ? Someone will correct me) that are designed to attack organic matter to get rid of stains/smell, but then, as I understand it, any residue left in the diapers will then go after organic matter on the skin (urine/feces) and the skin itself.

I would stop using the diapers. Can they be washed several times in plain water to get any residue out? Is it possible to leave his skin exposed for a while? We always do that with patients with excoriated/denuded skin and it makes a huge difference.

If you need to switch to disposables for a few days while this clears up and you treat your dipes, I would leave the disposables on as loose as possible to promote air flow over the injured skin. Although naked is still the best. Also, if it is bacterial or fungal, your Dr. may prescribe something that will help it clear up very quickly.

I hope you get some more educated (than mine) answers soon!

[ILovePie]

I'm fairly certain is is a contact rash, because it is not raised, no bumps. The doctor has seen it a few times in mild form and just said it was an irritation.

I've stripped and stripped and stripped. At one point I spent three days just doing hot rinses in plain water.

So, I'd do disposables - or even rent some cloth from the local diaper service - but I'm not sure there's a point unless I have a plan for how I'll solve this problem with our diapers.

I try to leave DS diaperless - he asks for diapers! I even tell him I want his ouchies to go away, but he wants to wear his diapers. *sigh*

[quiminco]

What kind of diapers do you use? If they're natural fiber, you can boil them and that will kill yeast. A touch of bleach on synthetics will do the trick, but make sure to rinse the snot out of them to get all the bleach out.

It almost sounds like the enzymes in the detergent are eating his skin; I'm not familiar with Rockin' Green detergent, so I don't know if it contains enzymes or not. I don't think yeast causes the kind of sloughing you are describing (those rashes tend to be more bloody, I think).

My son had the same problem, only the skin was peeling off around his thighs. I switched to natural fiber diapers and started using soap nuts, and it's cleared up completely (our theory is that he's allergic to polyester- we were using bumGenius- because he had a rash on the rest of his body and that cleared up when we started using 100% cotton clothes as well). I also use the NE sensitive diaper salve with every change, and use only water on cotton wipes (and make sure his bum is completely dry before putting a new diaper on).

Could you snap a onesie under his bum without a diaper? Maybe just putting a prefold (with pins or snappi) or fitted on him without a cover would satisfy his need for a diaper without inhibiting the airing-out process.

Good luck!

[Toolip]

it sounds bacterial to me, I think I'd get seen.

[lalemma]

Ouch! Poor baby.

I think I'd switch to disposables to give his skin a chance to heal while I did detective work to nail down the problem.

I'd start with a hot wash with a quarter-cup of bleach to kill anything that's hanging out in the diapers. If the diapers have a bacterial load (more likely if you diaper with synthetics) stripping wouldn't necessarily kill them off. So - I'd start with bleach, give his skin a few days, and try one of the bleached diapers. If it looks good, I'd suspect that it had been bacteria. If it didn't help, I'd start wondering about a contact allergy from either slight amounts of retained detergent or an allergy to the diapers themselves (more likely if you're diapering with synthetics.)